Sprint Outlines Use Of Alternative Energy Sources

Sprint has released a little information on its moves into alternative energy sources, many of which are used for backup power in cases of outages.

Hydrogen fuel cells have been deployed at more than 200 Sprint cell sites across the country.

After testing solar-powered back-up power in California, Sprint expects to deploy it in New York as well. In these sites, signals on Sprint’s fiber-optic backbone are amplified so they maintain power. These sites are tied to area electric grids, and if more power is generated than a particular site needs, excess power is fed back into those grids.

An upcoming installation of a wind turbine on Sprint’s Overland Park, Kansas, campus, will allow testing of wind as a potential power source for cell sites and other network uses.

Sprint is also testing geothermal cooling at select cell sites, as well as the use of flow batteries.